


marked

by plinys



Series: ABC Fic Challenge [20]
Category: Siege (Marvel) - Fandom, Young Avengers
Genre: F/F, Secret Wars (2015)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 09:36:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4955335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a star above her hip that reminds her of America.</p>
            </blockquote>





	marked

**Author's Note:**

> for my abc fic challenge, this week is "t" for "tattoo"

She gets the tattoo, drunk and alone in California, and for about ten minutes it seems like the best idea in the world.

The following ten minutes marks it as the biggest regret she’s ever had, not counting the initial regret of not saying what she felt before feeling across the country.

There’s a slurred voicemail that memorializes the event of getting a tattoo from the monotony of the rest of her life, one that she pours all her passion too, not even sure if the woman on the other end will hear her message. For all Kate knows they could be worlds apart – and the last time they spoke to each other things hadn’t exactly ended perfectly.

 It wasn’t her fault, well not really, there was just no smooth way to have a sexuality crisis and say _I think I might have a thing for you_ while aliens are attacking.

That’s just Kate’s life.

But now, on the nights where things get tough, when she curls into a ball and tries to make the pain goes away, when she swelters under the California heat wishing for more company than the two pets currently taking up space in her mobile home, there’s something she can do.

The outline of a star right above her hipbone, which she traces with her fingers whenever she wants to give it all up and head back to New York, keeps her quiet company.

Sometimes she tries to imagine what America would say if she were there with her. Sometimes Kate even calls her up for advice when she’s not sure what else to do.

(Though the phone is never answered.)

America would probably say to punch people in the face.

She says that. A lot. It’s almost endearing in a way.

“I think I was in love with you,” Kate says, another drunk voicemail falling from her lips, “Remind me, if I ever see you again, to say that, and then kiss your face.”

America’s voicemail doesn’t answer back.

(She’ll call Clint later, and when he picks up, she’ll tell him about her dumb decision. Listen to him tell her of his regrets until she feels better about her own.)

 

***

There’s a scar on her skin, raised up in a pattern that looks almost familiar to her, though she cannot remember where it came from.

The feeling is not an unfamiliar one to Lady Katherine, there’s many instances, in which she looks around herself and catches a flicker of something not quite right, and echo of something she is certain that she used to know, and the feeling that she’s missing the clues of something important.

She’d mentioned it to the other before, but the boy’s look at her like she’s lost her mind.

It’s bad enough that she gets it from most of the villagers and guards, but from her friends – that’s a low blow even for them.

As much as she tries to forget about it, she cannot. The echo of it, marked on her skin, plays in her mind like a broken record.

(Though she knows not what a record is, or where the turn of phrase had even come from.)

She wonders perhaps if there’s some sort of magic in the mark upon her skin.

A blessings from the gods, or a mark from a lifelong gone past.

There are rumors, myths, and stories that leave her wonderings unanswered. Eventually she settles for acceptance.

***

It’s not that she forgets about the mark – it’s just that, with her whole world being turned upside down (literally), and being tossed into a new life where she has to fight to survive and any misstep could lead to the end of her existence in the multi-verse – her priorities got adjusted.

Such that, try not to die, was at the top of the life.

Followed by, make friends with and possibly flirt with America.

It’s only once objective one is holding strong, and objective two had been most efficiently completed, that Katherine remembers the mark upon her skin that’s kept her company for as long as she could remember.

Or more specifically, she only remembers as she is slowly coming down from her haze, as they lie in bed together, and America’s hands softly and casually explore Katherine’s body, stopping just above her hip bone so that her fingers can trace the pattern left there.

“Where did you get this,” she says, once her fingers have finished following the path. The words are soft and curious, but America’s tone carries a weight that Katherine can feel in the very essence of her soul.

She shrugs in reply, though the movement is lost in the bed they lie upon.

 “I’ve had it as long as I can remember.”

“But you don’t know how-“

“No.”

America is silent for a long moment. Long enough that Katherine thinks that might be the end of the discussion.

(Truthfully, She’s not certain if she’s eager for an end to this discussion or not.)

But then America speaks up. A soft, “I know,” that Katherine barely hears before America is pushing up out of the bed.

Katherine’s about to tell her to stay, only to realize that America isn’t leaving at all, instead she’s bent over, body curved as she works to pull the sock off of her left foot. It’s a silly motion, one that leaves Katherine instantly wondering at her purposes.

“What are you doing?”

“Just hold on a minute, princess,” America says.  

She’s rewarded for her patience a moment later, as America thrusts a tanned foot in her direction. Squinting in the dark, Katherine can see a vague like upon the top of her foot, pointing (literally in this case) up towards her ankle.

“An arrow,” she says, hesitantly tracing the line on America’s body, which is so much like the star above her own hip. “How did you get this?”

For a second, she thinks there’s something _fond_ in America’s tone. “It’s sort of a relic from a past life, princess, well more like a different universe.” This is not the first time America has spoken of different universes as though she knows them all too well.

“What does it mean?”

America’s eyes meet hers, as she speaks. “It means, I was in love with somebody who didn’t realize it.”

“Oh,” Katherine says, and at once, the mark on her hip seems to burn ever so slightly. A phantom touch, she thinks, as she covers it with her hand. “I’m certain whoever was lucky enough to have your affections would be grateful to hear the news. Perhaps you should tell her, if you ever get the chance.”

Katherine hates herself at once, for being jealous of a woman that America would have known in her past life – in her life before this existence that they were now trapped in. It seems silly, certainly there was no way they were ever getting out of here. And yet, Katherine could not help but envy the woman whose mark America bore.

For a second, she had dared to hope that it might be a symbol of connection between them.

(The star on America’s jacket had innately felt familiar to her the first time she’d seen it.)

“Princess?”

“Yes?”

“I’m pretty sure, I just did.”


End file.
